Tales and Sketches.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 21, 17 June 1871, Page 16

Tales and Sketches.

THE WINNING HAZARD. (Prom Chambeks's Jotjenal.) ( Well, Mr Lowther of the Plas,' said a rough voice, 'are you sufficiently recovered to realise the fate I've prepared lor you i? You didn't enjoy your property very long, eh? On the whole I'm rather pleased that I didn't kill you last night; you'll feel the pangs of death all the keener that you have to leave such a very pleasant position behind you.' Jack said not a word, but lay there eyeing his enemy with half closed eyes. ' You would save me some trouble, Mr Lowther, if you would tell me where I shall find the money you drew from the bank.—You won't ? Quite natural. I shall easily find it afterwards. Let me see. I had made up my mind to batter your head with this loaded whip ; but on second thoughts, the wounds might reveal the weapon used. Now a stone would be, a perfectly natural and satisfactory method. What more probable than that your trap having upset, you knocked your head against a stone, eh ? A stone it shall be.'

Still Jack said not a word. He heard the doctor groping among the rocks, rejecting this stone as too light, this as too round; finally choosing one which combined the requisite weight and sharpness. There was still a glow in the western sky, and Jack could see thrown up against it the broad and burly figure of his enemy, holding a rock uplifted. 'At the word "Three," you die, my friend. Now. One—two—three'— Jack heard a rustling as of wings above him. Good bye to life and light. Still it came not, this death. One more look at the glowing western sky. The figure looming gigantic above him, the rock poised in his uplifted hands, waved two and fro. Jack heard the sharp ring of a shot echo among the crags. With a loud despairing cry, the black doctor fell across his intended victim, the stone rolling harmlessly down the slope. ' She isn't hurt a bit,' presently said a cheery voice; ' her knees, aren't touched. Now, let's have a look at her master. Ship ahoy ! How goes it with the lord of Dinorwich ?'

'Why it's the coroner,' quoth Jack. ' I don't think I'm much the worse, if I could get some of this top hammer off me.' ' I don't ask after the doctor. I felt sure I had him when I got a sight at him against the sky.' The coroner's strong arms soon relieved Jack from the weight of the carriage, which had been pressing upon him. ' Funny thing I should be here, isn't it ? Well, this is how it is. Will Bach of Llanbedig and I rent the fishing of this pool. It's yours now, by the way. You'll forgive us the rent for this job, won't you ? Well, we've been at a deal of trouble to preserve it from the quarrymen, and there are some very decent fish in it now. But a rascally beggar of a cormorant found it out too, and comes here every night to fish.' 'Then I heard the flap of his wings just now.' •Of course you did ; he's at it now. Look? Didn't you see a flash? That was the glitter of a trout he's caught, worse luck to him ! Well, Will and I tossed who should come at night and shoot this poaching vagabond ; and I lost, and had to do it, and lay down below among the rocks, with my rifle, where I knew he'd pass. And so 1 saw the whole affair—Thomas waylaying you, and then trying to knock your brains out.' ' Are you accustomed to killing people ?' said Jack, looking at him wonderingly. He felt the horror of the black, dead thing which lay stretched among the rocks. 1 1 never killed anything before wickeder than an otter or a foumart. It's the habit of sitting on dead bodies that makes it come so natural to me, I suppose. But, my dear fellow, do help me to catch your mare; she seems to have jumped clean out of the shafts, snapping the traces like packthread. I hope you've got a spare trace in the box, and a piece of cord j we shall manage very well, if you have. I don't after all, fancy stopping here long beside that body.' . «And I must get to Llanbedig, if there were a dozen bodies in the way.'

CHAPTEfi XVIII. « Wherefore do you look Upon that poor and broken bankrupt there ?» Saturday and Sunday had dragged on gloomily enough at Guisethorpe Rectory. Septimus had gone through the duties of the day in some sort of fashion—he hadn t utterly broken down. He was as a man carrying an intolerable but secret burden a martyr doomed to the stake, without any glow of faith, any pride of consistency to sustain him. He hadn't the consolation of an unsuccessful gambler, that he had played to win a stake, had played his beat, and had lost, and that there was no help for it. No; he had to acknowledge to himself that he had simply been a fool. He, too, had been a victim to deportment, to the virtues of a respectable grey head, unspotted shirt front, and bland and assured manner. He had fondly thought

that he could trust other people to pick up" gold and silver for him on Tom Tidler's ground without occasion for him to grovel in the dust of that miry land. He had been one of those who had imagined that they could sit in a high place issuingorders for the guidance of people below, without knowing anything of the machinery they were working, without even the superficial knowledge that habit gives. And so there had been r blow up and a burst. But sorrows are none the lighter that they are self-inflicted ; it it is none the easier to drown, because you are the captain, and have carried too much sail. But the great practical alleviator of misery is the numbness of sensation it induces. The weight of the rector's troubles were so heavy that he had almost ceased to regard them ; going through the day in a dumb mechanical way, as a man might who had been paralysed in one of the lobes of his brain ; looking forward no farther than the thing immediately before him. The little minute worries inseparable from existence plagued him most indeed—the Prayer book he couldn't find, the sermon he had mislaid ; they seemed in their insuperableness to his disorganised nerves, more terrible than the great misery behind. But Sarah watched him keenly removing the little pebbles from his path ; watched him narrowly but unobtrusively, soothing him when she could, but mostly silent and observant. ' Jack will be here tomorrow/ was her most frequent word of comfort; but the grector would shake his head and sigh neaVily. t At night he took refuge in his library. Perhaps he could brace himself up a little in companionship with some of his heathen friends. Horace had something to say to him indeed, but not much of comfort. Times had changed since his days; he, indeed, had lived; he had to leave behind him a monument more enduring than brass; but what had he, Lowther, to leave behind him? What life had he led ? * A life of dignity and respectability, such a life as one sees chronicled on marbled tablets: 'An affectionate father, a generous neighbor, an exemplary minister of the Gospel, and the oldest magistrate in the county.' Such might have been his monument. But the respectability tarnished, the dignity turned to reproach, what was there left to him in life? Only his son, whom he had ruined, and sleep. Yes the tired old man lay back in his easy chair, and went to sleep over his troubles. Sarah came in and found him asleep. She would not disturb him, but sat down to watch him, to keep the fire burning, the lights trimmed. She, too, had much to think about. When she-first heard Joe Barker's proposal to contract her with the stout, and rosy, and, it must be added, occasionally groggy miller, she had thought of it only ai a means of gaining a little time for her uncle ; but being a clear headed woman, accustomed to think things out as far as she. could, or dared, she had not contented herself with looking at the matter from the point of view of her own repugnance and dislike. She had had her own dreams of a loving life spent with the man of her choice; but she had now almost ceased to have*any real substantial hope that these dreams would ever be realised—had almost ceased to wish for their accomplishment. And this alliance which offered itself had the recommendation that it involved no pretext of affection, no make believe of billing and cooing. It would indeed be very repugnant to her to bestow her person on a man like Good ; so, indeed, it would to do so on any man except the one she had loved all these years. But after all, should she measure her duties by her desires ? Here at all events, was a life of reality open to her; she had fed all her days on fancies—there was real solid pabulum here. If indeed she could save her uncle from the fate which she and he believed to be imminent, then she was obliged to confess to herself that it might be her duty so far to abandon the traditions of her life, to outrage her own proclivities, as to entertain the suit of the miljer. Still, it was a bad, black business, whichever way she looked at if

And time was running on so fast. It was now three o'clock on Monday morning, so far had the night fled whilst she sat watching her sleeping uncle. She listened to the ticking of the clock, to the heavy breathings of the sleeper. Everything seemed dead and dreary in this the deadest and dreariest of watches of the night. She went to the window, opened it, and looked out; it was a raw and chilly night—the little stream was babbling still—the screech owl shrieked in its flight about the old church tower. She shut the window again, shivering, and came back ajjd looked at the sleeper ; she fancied tfcatHus countenance had changed, that it had assumed a more pallid, a more death like hue, that his breathing was irregular. Oh, something was going to happen j she felt sure, something terrible I and she was alone and powerless. She started in vivid apprehension. ?!here was a scratch upon the window pane, She stared in blank horror at the

glass, for there was a human hand tap, tap, tapping at the window.' The next moment she had flown noiselessly into the garden, and received a great hug and kiss from her cousin Jack. ' How's the governor ?' 'He bears up well; he's asleep now in the library.' ' I saw a light in the garden and came round to see who was there, and found you/and knocked. 1 didn't frighten you ?' ' O no, not now; I shall never be frightened again. You must be very hungry.' ' No, I'm past that; only horribly thirsty. Get me a bumper of claret; there's a good old girl.' ' O Jack, what has happened ? Jack, you're like the ghost of a collier.' 'Don't laugh at me. I've been in breaks/and in coal trucks, and on engines, and I hardly know how I got here at all; but here I am nevertheless, and, what's more, I've got the Brass.' So saying he threw a heavy bag of gold on the dining room table.

'Jack 1 knew you would; I didn't see how, but somehow, or other I knew you would. And is there really fifteen hundred pounds in that bag?' ' Two thousand.'

'O you dear bag of gold, let me kiss you!-Jack, to think that this shabby canvas bag should make so much difference in all our lives! And so Aunt Lavinia was kind.' * She's dead.' • ' Dead ! dead ! and,— Jack nodded. « Yes, I'm the man.'

Sarah went away in a sort of maze to wake her uncle. She whispered but two words to him, 'Jack's come,' and he woke with a smile on his face. Sarah, crept up to bed, leaving the father and son to talkunreservedly together. And then she had a quiet little cry. Ah, she might have had a share, too, in all this halcyon time that was coming. How had she worked, how had she suffered, and all the reward would go to a peachy cheek, to a soft speaking eye I Well it was the way of the world. She couldn't sleep, and presently heard the two men ascending the stairs. She almost thought that two Jacks had come home, so quick the rector's tread, so hearty the ring of his laugh. CHAPTER XIX. • She excels each mortal thing Upon the dull earth dwelling.' In the big drawing room in Eldon Square, night coming on, the breeze flapping gently the blue and white sunshades, and inwafting the fragrance of flowers, sits John Lowther, a coffee cup in his hand, close to the big piano, and talking to Yaleria. He had told her his adventures in Wales, to which she has listened in breathless interest. 'Thank you, Mr Lowther:, you have told it all very nicely ; but there is one thing I don't understand.' ' Give it a name, as the prophet says.' ' How could you leave the county, whilst you where the only witness of that dreadful man's death ?' ' There was no difficulty about that. John Griffiths managed all that. He conducted the inquest, and directed the jury to return a verdict of " Temporary insanity."—lllegal ? Oh, we don't think much of that in Wales. Griffiths made all straight by acting as chief mourner at the funeral. The whole country side was there. I had to go, too, of course; and Jack Griffiths tells me I'm immensely popular already on that account. The doctor was so nearly the practical repre sentative of our family, that I couldn't do less than pay him that mark of respect.' ' But, Mr Lowther, it couldn't have been that he should have really inherited the property. The will must have been upset afterwards.' * I don't see how,' said Jack. ' Half a dozen big charities on one side, swarming with lawyers, and a fellow without a rap, and no case to speak of, on the other.' 'But don't you think, Mr Lowther, you are bound to carry out the old lady's intentions Psf

Jack laughed. 'Which intentions? The intentions of last week, or the week before ? I tell you what, Valeria, I mean to carry out her sober, rational intentions, which I should judge to be something like this, supposing the old lady speaking to me : " My dear nephew, you're the nearest to me by blood and affection; and as there are no living Morgans, and most of the estate was bought by my money, I am wronging no one by leaving it to you —allthe more that I don't think you ever likely to make a fortune for yourself, or any name in the world, if I don't. But take a warning by me, my dear nephew. All my life long I've been putting acre to acre, and house to house, thinking, too, all the while to prolong my poor, wretched, miserable life into another, that should somehow or other be rich, happy, splendid. Avoid all this. Don't turn your heart into clay, your blood into bricks ,and mortar. You know that in your heart you love a girl who is tie brightest and fairest of all the girls in the world. There, I've given you a dull old mansion, a ponderous income. Go to one who will brighten this dull mansion with her glorious presence, who will make possible to

you a good and useful life."—Valeria, will you help me to carry out my aunt's intentions ?'

«I—l don't know,' said Valeria. 'I am not good at riddles.' But the solution of this one was not hard to find. Eose colored clouds and lambent harmless flames, a little lifting of the dark mists of life, and a fair space of bright blue sky and sunshine all ahead, who cannot imagine or remember all this ? Jack, as he sat in his big leather chair that night, talking over matters with his friend Arthur Brown, smoking his big pipe, and drinking a mild beverage called shandy-gaff out of a big tankard, could hardly fancy but that the events of the past few weeks were all a dream. One thing was real enough—he held in his hand the bill he had given Mr Flint, and was just lighting his pipe with it. 1 I'd back him again for the Leger, if I were you,' said Brown. ' Let* him take castles who has ne'er a groat,' said Jack. 'No, old fellosv. I don't blame a man who has only a halfpenny, which won't buy a bun, or a pie, or half a pint of porter even, going double or quits with it. Having got my penny, I mean to have my pie.' chafeer xx. ' Sorrow changed to solace, solace mixed with sorrow.' We are once more in the happy valley of Llandanwg. It is Christmas-eve, some eighteen months after the events previously chronicled, or rather it is now Christmas day. But the day is very young; it is not three hours old ; nevertheless all the houses have lights in their windows, and there is a great clattering of footsteps along the stony roads. There are lights, too, in the chuch, and flitting about the churchyard ; and, although there are only two bells in the tower, and one is cracked, yet they make up for want of compass by brilliance of execution. Surely never did clappers clap more vigorously. Throughout all Llandanwg for many weeks the great question had been—over-, riding all considerations of the Irish Church or other matters of high politics —the great question had been, shall there be a Plygain ?* It was .understood that the parson had set his face against it. The people groaned and hooted at him in the street. Then it was reported iHat the parson was not in fault—that it was Mr Lowther who opposed it. Mr Lowther had to duck his head as he drove his fiery chestnuts across the town place, to avoid the potatoes, which were hurled at him from the dark alleys on either'side. He could have evicted a whole township, he could have turned a dozen farms into one big sheep run—the people would have sighed, and submitted ; but to touch their Plygain, the mere rumor of it almost drove them to revolution.

* Want a Pluggan, do they, Morgan?' said Jack to the landlord of the inn, who came forward as mediator. ' They shall have two as far as I'm concerned, if they will stop shying potatoes at my hat. But I'm not the priest; he's the man to go to.' ' The rector's quite agreeable, I know, Mr Lowther.'

' Then everybody is. Let them Plug away as hard as they like.' The people would have taken the horses out of Jack's carriage, and drawn him up to the Plas, but Jack firmly declined, having unavoidably experienced that method of traction more.than once, and finding that, but for the honor of the thing, it was a very disagreeable, not to say dangerous, way of progression.

So at three o'clock on this Christmas morning, all the windows of Llandanwg are lighted up, and the mountain roads are speckled with moving twinkling lights, and all the men and women from the hills, and the men and women from the valley, and all the townsfolk too, are crowding into the church. Perhaps not a dozen people of all these crowds have ever conscientiously been to church except at a Plygain: they have mostly been christened at church, and mostly will be buried in the churchyard—married—no; in such an unimportant affair as matrimony, David acts on commercial principals, and prefers the cheapest article. The registrar's benison is sufficient for him.

The "people crowding into the church have filled every cranny and corner of it ; and when Jack and his cousin Sarah (she was called Aunt Sally now, and had come down to the Plas to assist in the ushering in of the heir) arrived at the church porch tbey thought it would be impossible to get in. But the crowd wedged itself good humoredly into still smaller compass, and the young squire and his couim passed up the aisle through a narrow lane of people. The congregation were cracking nuts mostly, and sucking toffee, and the parson hurried over morning prayer at his fastest, for the people were impatient for the real business of the day. When he came to the third collect, he shut his book in a resigned but despairing way/ for the Ply gain was supposed to represent the anthem. And then two ill-favored men , and a hard featured woman stepped into j the little open space by the chancel, and

the Plygain began. All sorts of songs, and glees, and carols went round, the performers jumping up excitedly in all parts of the church. Sweet, ringing, tinkling voices they had, and sweet tinkling melodies they sang, all with a touch of sadness about them. These dark swart little men and women might well have been gnomes and demons from the heart of the slate mountains, and these might have been fairy songs they were singing. They mfght have all vanished had a cock crowed —had the rector made the sign of the cross over them.

But he didn't venture to do that; and being very sleepy, and seeing that Lowther was sleepy too, he beckoned him and his cousin quietly iuto the vestry, leaving prayers to be finished at a more convenient season.

The broad estuary lay between the church and the Plas, and a boat was waiting by the sands to carry them home. They pushed out into ths placid tide, in which was reflected the shining firmament, putting out the little stars one by one as the ripple of the boat stole over the stream. The wan old moon was rising over the rocks palely and disconsolately, in manner so different from the glory of her coming in, in the fulness of her time, when she rises among the waters in a path of dazzling sheen. 'Jack,' said Sarah, 'I think I'm like that old moon.' ' You're an old dear,' said Jack in an absent way; he was busy lighting his cigar. He was very happy himself, was very fond and proud of his beautiful wife Valeria, immensely proud of the splendid baby boy of which she had made him the father. All the world was bright to him, therefore he was not inclined to be sympathetic withdolefulness. Sarah saw that she wouldn't get much,, comfort in that quarter, and so held ker peace. ' Sally'' said Jack after a while, ' Trudgett is going to leave me; he's got the Duke of Denbigh's agency—a very good thing: he'll have to live in London.' ' Dear me, how pleased those girls will be. They'll have a chance of getting husbands now, which they're trying for so hard.' ,' How spiteful you old maids always are. They're very jolly girls, I think. Well, I am looking about for somebody in his place. There isn't much to do. A clerk at a pound a week does all the real work only I must have somebody I can trust. Sally, do you think I could trust Captain Tom ? Of course I don't mean as to his integrity, and so on : but do you think he would keep steady, and look after things ?' ' Poor Tom has always been very much misunderstood,' said Sarah warmly. 'Ho was a little reckless once ; but can you, wonder at it, brought up as he was, and then turned adrift on the world to sink or swim ! Colonel Brown, the head of tho police, speaks most highly of him, and so does everybody in the colony. He is actually saving money out of his pay and putting it by.' * Then that settles the matter,' said Jack. * I'll write and offer him the post. It will be very nice having you near us, Sally; only I forgot: are you sure that you are quite off with Good ?' ' Your father brought such sad news, last night, Jack—Good is going to marry —to marry Mrs Hopper, the landlady of the Barley Mow. She is a lady of property; and they will be very happy together. So that illusion's vanished, Jack.*" They presently touched the soft sand of the river's bank, and made their way up the hill to the Plas.

' Jack,' said Sarah, ' I can't thank you now for what you've done, for I want to turn it over in my mind, and realise it, but I will thank you some day.' Lowther was now too much awake to go to bed, so he strollod into the Woods behind the house and up the bluff hillside ; and coming to ithe top, he saw the whole landscape spread below him in a quiet silvery light, the light of the old moon. Hill, and valley, and shining lake like river, and the sea glittering beyond, soft wreaths of vapor clinging to the mountain's side—his eye rested lovingly on all the features of this fairy scone. ' I have a goodly heritage,' he said to himself. ' After all, an immense deal in luck. To think that I owe everything which makes life so pleasant to m* to a mere fluke, in fact, to a Winning Hazard!' (Concluded)